Trinidad

Introducing Trinidad

Put the tourists of Trinidad in a room and you’ll have an awkward party: on one side will be wallflower bird-watchers tangled in camera and binocular straps and on the other, the side with the bar, you’ll have the party-hound Carnival fans turning up the music and tying their ties around their foreheads.

However, here’s the secret: there’s much more to Trinidad unseen through binoculars or beer goggles. Of course, the swamps and forests are a bird-watcher’s dream, and Port of Spain’s Carnival will blow your mind. Yet Trinidad is also laden with verdant hiking and biking trails that wind you to gushing waterfalls and deserted bays. The rural, untouristed northeast coast harbors rugged beaches of shocking beauty and a true taste of Trini life. In the southwest, you can particularly see how East Indian culture has fused with the other ethnicities of this island. Earthy curry fills the air and flamboyant temples come out of nowhere.

Trinidad tends to treat tourists in a blasé manner, sometimes like swatting a fly away and sometimes with an annoyed gesticulation to come closer, come closer. After all, the booming oil and gas industry is the real bread and butter. And maybe to you that’s a boon. Genuine adventure, unfluffed by a traditional tourist industry, awaits you in Trinidad if you choose to accept.

Last updated: Feb 17, 2009